adjustment
by ohlookrandom
Summary: "Yep, that's what we've been dealing with all day."
1. Chapter 1

Just something I wrote on a whim. Might be rambly, but hopefully you enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except my collection of soft toys.

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><p><em>Thursday<em>

"Come on."

"No." Green kept on typing away at his computer, ignoring Blue's pleas. The wily girl draped herself over his desk, and Green rolled his eyes. "Blue," he said sternly, "get off my desk."

"Please?" Blue whined.

"Absolutely not. I have a lot of work to do."

"Red's going."

"Red has something better to do than go on a trip with you girls."

"Fine, so he said he couldn't go, but come on Green!"

"Blue, you've saved the world at least three times over. I think you and the girls can handle yourself perfectly fine."

The girl drew herself to her full height, evidently giving up. "Fine," she huffed. "I'll see you in three days then." She began to wheedle. "How about a hug?"

"We're _not _going out, Blue," Green said with emphasis. "I'll see you on Saturday. Try not to swindle every vendor you see on the street."

He didn't even flinch when Blue slammed the door behind her.

…

_Sunday_

The wind was chilly when Green locked his Gym doors behind him. It was a crisp autumn Saturday, and he figured that competitors could wait at least a couple hours before coming to be demolished. A tiny frown creased his brows as he tested the padlock between the doors; he remembered the last time Blue sneaked into his Gym and stole his keys.

"Green!" A female voice interrupted his thoughts, and he turned around to see Crystal hurrying up the road to him. Green raised his eyebrow in confusion; his grandfather's assistant usually didn't come to Viridian for any sort of duties. _How strange. _"Crystal," he greeted her in his usual low tone. "What's the occasion?"

She giggled in an odd manner and twirled her pigtails, which, to Green's rather horrified observation, was curled and carried traces of sparkles in them. And Arceus, what was she wearing? Green took in Crystal's appearance. Under her modest lab coat was a short skirt, showing off her long legs and round- Green closed his eyes to avoid further inspection, his cheeks turning pink. "Crystal," he got out, "_what _are you wearing?"

"You don't like it, Green?" Crystal giggled again, twirling around like an idiot as she threw out her hands. "I think the sparkles add a nice touch."

"Yes, well, maybe Gold will like it," Green said bluntly, striding past her. "Shouldn't you be at work?"

"I just got back from the trip," Crystal babbled, following closely behind him as he strode towards Viridian City. "And my work's all done! I filed the reports, did some research, finished tomorrow's paperwork, talked to Oaky-"

"_Oaky_?" Green choked on the word, not sure whether to laugh or cry. Seeing as to how he was Green, he did neither and settled for turning to look at Crystal askance. "Who are you and what have you done with the real Crystal?" he wanted to know.

She laughed loudly and skipped right past him, singing out behind her, "What are you talking about? I'm as real as real can be! Why, I'm _perfect_!" The last word she trilled out like a mockingbird, but what shocked Green was how on pitch and melodious she sounded.

Crystal, to his memory, had _never _sounded on pitch and melodious.

…

"I got your message. What's up?" Gold flopped down next to Silver. "Need some girl advice? Boy, it's about time you upped your game. I've been saying that you need a girl for the longest time- so is it that one new girl from the department store? Or is it-"

"Shut up, Gold," Silver interrupted furiously. "Where's Ruby? _He _called me to tell me to meet him here. So I called you." He scowled and added in a lower mutter, "not that I wanted to…"

Gold chose to ignore that last remark. "What on earth does Prissy Boy want with us?" he wanted to know, tilting his cap so that the sun didn't reach his eyes. "You'd think that he wouldn't want to associate with us lowly commoners."

"I normally wouldn't," Ruby grumbled, strolling out from between the trees. He wrinkled his nose at the sight of Gold lolling on the ground. "What are you _doing_?" he demanded. "All that dirt is going to be impossible to remove from your clothes later."

The Johto boy shrugged, obviously not caring. "I'll live," he said carelessly, heartlessly enjoying Ruby's increasingly disgusted expression. "Now what do you want?"

Silver scowled even further and leaned against the tree, clearly uninterested in what this conversation had in store for him.

Ruby cleared his throat, edging away from Gold as he did so. "Well, you see-" he began.

"Hold on," Gold cut in, leaning around Ruby to peer at something in the distance. "Is that- is that- _holy Arceus_, is that Sapphire?"

"And _that_ is why I called you. To make sure I wasn't hallucinating." Ruby covered his eyes. "I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy."

Silver sat up straight. "What is she _wearing_?" he wanted to know. "Is that _Red _with her?"

Gold's jaw was slack. "Is that- that's a skirt! Ruby, that's a-"

"I know what it is, Gold, I've been around skirts," Ruby snapped, and then flinched when both the Johto boys whipped around to stare at him. "Not in that way! Not in that- oh, screw it."

"Prissy Boy, I dare say your queen's been tamed," Gold commented, earning himself an annoyed smack on the head from Ruby and somewhat of a warning glare from Silver. "Okay, hey now, all I'm saying is-" He stopped short. "I don't even know. What _am _I saying? More importantly, what is Sapphire doing?" He squinted. "I dare say she's _flirting _with Red-" And now Ruby actually did kick him.

Silver attempted to redeem the situation. "Well, Red's not responding at least," he reported. He sniffed. "I still don't understand why you called us, Pris-Ruby." He grimaced when Gold cackled to himself, still watching the reclusive Kanto Champion attempt to free himself from a suddenly feminine Sapphire.

"Well, one, I wanted to make sure I wasn't insane," Ruby ticked off on his fingers, "two, I wanted to know if Crystal and Blue were acting any different. _Shut up, Gold,_" he growled as Gold failed at suppressing another chortle.

"I haven't seen Crystal all day, and Blue told me she was busy," Silver said as coolly as he could, even though Sapphire's squealed "_Oh, Red! You're adorable!" _echoed up the hills, causing Ruby to wince and Gold's grin to spread even wider.

"What in the good name of Mew is going on?" Green demanded, and his shadow fell across the trio on the grass. "I can hear Sapphire from a mile away. What are you-" He stopped short and gaped. "Please tell me that isn't Red."

Ruby had buried his head in his arms. "I've tried convincing myself otherwise, too," his muffled voice floated up. "Maybe we're all hallucinating."

"What is she wearing?" Green wanted to know, obviously unaware that he was simply repeating the normal train of thought the three boys had previously been through. "What is wrong with everyone today? Crystal shows up like she's straight out of a terribly drawn graphic novel-"

"Why, what was she wearing?" Gold sat straight up.

Green cast him a look, but answered the question nevertheless. "Sparkles. And a short skirt. And… you know what? Never mind."

The Johto boy looked perturbed, surprisingly enough. "Crystal doesn't wear those sort of things," he muttered to himself. "That _is _strange."

"Where's Blue?" Silver demanded of the Viridian Gym Leader.

Green cocked his eyebrow. "You expect _me _to know? I'm not her keeper."

"She said she was busy-"

"How flattering, that you thought she was busy with me. She was probably busy picking locks."

"You take that back, Green Oak-"

Sapphire and Red arrived just then, the former still clinging on to the latter. Red's face had a degree of confusion to it as he struggled to understand exactly what was going on. "Hi_iiiiii_," Sapphire trilled, and all four boys gaped at her, varying degrees of horrified amazement on their faces. "What?" Sapphire wanted to know. "Haven't you boys ever seen a lady before?"

Ruby's eye was twitching. "You offend every piece of my fashion sensibilities," he stuttered. "Pink and yellow? _Pink and yellow_?"

"I thought it was nice," Sapphire pouted.

Ruby exploded just then. "And since when do you think colors are nice? Since when do you consider dresses appropriate for you? And since when exactly did you decide that you like _lace_?"

Sapphire's lip trembled, quivered, and before the eyes of the shocked boys, she sank to her knees, buried her face in her poufy sleeves and began to weep miserably. Ruby stared at her, not sure exactly what to do- comfort her, knock some sense into her, or run for his life. He settled for asking the one question that every boy in the vicinity was asking themselves- "And since when did you decide that it was okay to cry?"

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><p>Reviews as always appreciated :) Thank you for reading!<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: You know my spiel by now.

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><p>"Yellow! Yellow! YellowYellow<em>Yellow<em>!" And Gold careened through Yellow's front yard like a cannonball, followed by a slightly hysterical Ruby. "Yellow?" He peered through the front window and his mouth dropped open. "Whoa."

"What?" Ruby wanted to know, still turning his cap nervously in his hands.

"Whoa," Gold repeated.

"What's going on?" And Green showed up, his face a mix of annoyance and curiosity. Silver trailed behind, his face a mask of indifference, and Red shuffled along beside the reclusive redhead, hindered by a beaming Sapphire latched onto him. Green scowled, muttering something about obnoxious females and why couldn't they all just train Pokemon and be _happy _with it, stupid hormones, Pokemon battles were the only way to go-

The door swung open and a decidedly unkempt Yellow leaned against the doorjamb, twirling a bottle of soda in her hand. "Hi, boys," she drawled lazily as all five boys gaped at her slovenly appearance. Her straw hat was not present, and her usually neat ponytail was half-yanked out of order; her clothes were wrinkled and disheveled. She grinned even as she took a swig of her bottle. "What's cookin'?"

"What is _wrong _with all of you girls?" Green demanded.

Yellow glared at him- that was enough for all five boys to take an involuntary step backward. Yellow never, _ever _glared at anyone. She growled between her teeth, "Why does something have to be wrong? Why do you have to be so darn paranoid, Green?"

"Er," Gold cut in, smiling his most winsome smile at the blonde, "Ignore Green, Yellow. You know how untactful he is-"

"AND YOU!" Yellow advanced on the Johto boy, who faltered in his speech. "You are one of the flirtiest boys I have ever had the misfortune to meet, and I'm sick of you putting the moves on EVERY ONE of the girls I know! BACK OFF MISTER."

Gold blinked at her. "But I-" he attempted to defend himself.

Silver dragged him backwards. "We'll just be leaving now," he excused them all, and the five boys fled the scene, leaving a confused Sapphire behind in the dust and the slamming of a door.

"Okay," Gold got out once they had caught their breath and gotten suitably far enough away from the angry blonde Dex Holder. "So clearly- Yellow isn't- in her right mind either."

"Where's _Blue_?" Silver wanted to know.

"To be honest I'm wondering that myself," Green said thoughtfully (it annoyed everyone that he wasn't even sweating despite that sprint. Except Red. Nothing annoyed Red). "If everyone's acting differently, what's Blue acting like?"

As if on cue, his phone rang, and everyone stiffened. Green pulled it out, and five pairs of eyes just stared at it as though it was haunted. "Well?" Red finally spoke up, and everyone turned to look at him. "Aren't you going to pick it up?"

The prompt from the silent Champion was all Green needed. "Hello?" he answered his phone.

Everyone continued to stare at him as he listened to the other person on the line. "Mmmhmm. Yeah. I understand. Mmhmm. I'll be there."

"WELL?" Ruby all but screamed when Green put the phone away.

Green pinched his nose. "Today just gets stranger and stranger," he sighed.

"Why? What happened?"

"That was Blue. She's in the lab."

"Doing _what_? Wrecking the paperwork?" And Gold got himself another punch from Silver.

"That's the strange part." Green paused, clearly unable to process the next part. "She's doing _research_."

…

"I didn't even think you knew how to operate a telescope," Gold said in awe when they stood in Professor Oak's lab later.

"It's a _microscope_," Green snapped testily, and then advanced on the labcoat-clad Blue. "And _you_- is this some sort of a joke?"

Blue looked up from her paperwork, confusion written all over her face. "Joke? I don't joke, Green." And back she went to scribbling something down on the paper.

Gold, obviously being the most outspoken of the group at the moment (Green was rendered speechless, Silver was puzzled, Ruby was still thinking about Sapphire's unsettling transformation, and Red- well, Red was being Red), burst out, "What do you mean you don't joke? Your entire life is based on torturing us all!"

He was actually surprised that Silver didn't punch him for it, but he supposed that Silver was still trying to put two and two together and hadn't heard his remark.

Blue looked up from her research, annoyance coloring her face. "Look, Gold," she said testily, "I have more things to worry about than you standing in the lab and accusing me of things I don't do. I called Green in because I needed to ask him about this field report he submitted over a month ago. Your writing's a little cramped, fix that," she advised the Gym Leader before scribbling something else down on the paper. When she looked back up to find all the boys still gaping at her, she sighed. "Why are you still here?" she wanted to know. "You're cluttering up my work space!"

Green regained control of his voice. "Blue, are you feeling okay?"

He fully expected the girl to turn on him with her charm and somehow convince him to come to her house and take care of her, but instead she didn't even look up from comparing field reports. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she said dismissively. "I'm not a little girl, Green. Stop mothering me. Now could you boys please leave so I can focus? This is hard work and I want to make sure I do this right."

_That _was the clincher. Green threw up his hands and walked out of the lab, with Red trailing closely behind, a thoughtful look on his face. Silver and Ruby had to drag a gaping Gold out of the lab, the latter muttering over and over, "Something's not right… something's clearly not right."

"Curious," Red commented when the door shut behind them.

Green shot him a look. "No _duh_."

Red just shrugged and retired to the wall, where he leaned against it and fiddled with the bill of his cap. "This is why I didn't come off Mount Silver," he said softly.

Ruby collapsed on the ground. "A skirt," he said to no one in particular. "_Voluntarily_. Why am I not happy about it?"

Gold opened his mouth, but Silver cut him off with a wintry, "Not now, Gold."

"A skirt-"

"Come on Silver it's _Sapphire _in a skirt, when will I ever get to mock him about this-"

"-_voluntarily-_"

"You're an idiot, Gold, has anyone ever told you that?"

"-but it's _pink and yellow_!"

"After how you constantly remind me of it every day, Silver, it might become true."

"That's because it _is_ true," Red pointed out matter-of-factly.

Both Gold and Silver turned to glare at him before turning back to each other to argue. "Well," Silver began, "You know what, Gold-"

"_Shut it_, both of you," Green growled, massaging his temple.

"Excuse me?" A soft, even voice spoke from outside. Green bit down an angry retort and turned around, rearranging his features into his usual recognizable indifferent expression. "Morty," he greeted the Ecruteak Gym Leader with considerable restraint. "Now is not a particularly good time…"

"Oh, I understand," Morty answered, mouth twitching with what seemed to the irate Green like amusement. "This has nothing to do with Gym Leader business, I assure you. I was just wondering if you have seen a Hypno wandering the streets somewhere down here in the Kanto region?"

"I have not," Green answered shortly.

Red perked up at the mention of a Hypno. "I'd be happy to help you look," he offered- and received the glare of the other four boys in return. "Never mind."

"I didn't know you had a Hypno, Morty," Gold commented.

"I don't. Sabrina does, though. I was just in the area, so I decided to give her a hand."

"And pull me along for the ride," Falkner grumbled as he walked into the lab. (Green was aware that the room they were in was definitely too small for seven people- he'd definitely need to make renovations once he had the time.) "Morty, I fail to see why I'm on this hunt."

"Because you wanted to see Kanto, and what better way for you to explore?"

"Morty!" And Sabrina stalked into the room (eight was just too many, Green decided). She stopped short when she saw the group. "My, isn't this a crowd."

"You're psychic, you couldn't tell?" Silver said acidly.

"I'd advise you to be careful when you next visit my gym," Sabrina retorted, which caused Gold to give a low whistle. "There might be a few, ah, surprises."

The door behind them opened, and Blue came out, adjusting reading glasses (reading glasses? Ruby decided that today was definitely a strange day). She stopped short, staring openmouthed at the eight people gathered in the room. "What are you doing here?" she wanted to know. "Get out! You're messing up the organization!"

"_Organization_?" Green demanded.

"Yes, yes! I organized all the documents by color, thickness, and name! And you might be ruining all of that! Get out!" Blue began shooing Ruby away from the desk. "And you! Stop leaning against the wall! I might have to clean it later!" Red blinked, in presumably confusion, and edged away from the visibly frustrated Blue.

"Yep," Gold said happily to the visibly confused Johto Gym Leaders when they got out into the bright sunlight, "that's what we've been dealing with all day."

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><p>I forgot to mention that this story was partly inspired by Snoaz's amazing fic, 'Changeovers'. It's really super duper epic. You should go check it out. After you review. :) Thanks for reading!<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I wish I had Pokemon, but I don't.

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><p>"And you say that this has been going on the whole day?" Morty steepled his fingers together as he leaned back in his cross-legged position.<p>

"And all of them have been acting differently," Green confirmed.

Morty and Sabrina exchanged a glance; Falkner just continued to stroke the giant Pidgeot on his shoulder as it commenced a staring contest with Silver. The Ecruteak Gym Leader cleared his throat. "Well…" he began.

Green raised an eyebrow; Red leaned forward, his red eyes burning with curiosity. Gold was having way too much fun playing with the tip of Ruby's hat with his cue stick to pay attention to the conversation. The air grew thick with awkward expectation as Morty thought about his next few words and Sabrina surveyed the group with her piercing eyes. "Perhaps I should tell them," she finally offered.

"Go for it." Morty continued to play with his fingers.

Sabrina got to the point- as usual, Red thought privately to himself, but almost flinched when Sabrina turned her gaze on him. He'd forgotten she could read minds. "I was _going _to say," she said, never turning her eyes away from Red, "my Hypno is fairly young. It just learned the move Hypnosis; I expect it to grow further in the next few days. But of _course_, my assistant managed to lose Hypno when she took _my _Pokemon out for a stroll…"

"You take your Pokemon out for strolls?" Gold asked, so surprised that he forgot to play with the preoccupied Ruby's hat for a moment. "You don't strike me as the type to take them out for walks."

"It's a new technique Morty recommended." Sabrina's tone was curt. "I cannot say that it's very… _effective_, considering my Pokemon went missing."

Morty shrugged nonchalantly. "Your Gothorita evolved fairly quickly, did it not?"

"That it did."

"Excuse me," Green interrupted with some degree of irritation, "Forgive me if I'm being rude-"

"You are," Gold muttered under his breath, and felt something kick him under the table. "Ow!"

Green ignored Gold's yelp. "-but I would like to know what your Hypno has to do with anything."

"Since it learned Hypnosis, that's all Hypno has been using," Sabrina explained. "That's why it was solely with me- because it needed to learn how to rely on other moves. It's still in the Kanto region- specifically the Viridian Forest- because that's where I caught it. Or rather, where your straw hat friend caught it, and brought to me."

Green ignored the fact that Yellow had actually managed to catch something, and zeroed in on what was more important. "So you're saying is that the Hypno is home, and somehow managed to hypnotize all the girls, all at the same time?"

"Were they all in one location?"

It began clicking. "Yes," Green said slowly, "the trip they took together three days ago."

"That would be it." Sabrina shrugged. "It's a simple reversal. Once I get all those girls together, my Alakazam can put them to sleep and eat their dreams. Hopefully, that should put them back to normal."

"How does _that _work?" Red wanted to know.

Sabrina shrugged indifferently. "I don't question it." She rose from her seat. "I'll be off now to go and track down Hypno. It's not too far from here, I can sense the brain waves. Morty, Falkner?"

Both Johto Gym Leaders rose from their seats. "Goodbye," Falkner said formally, bowing slightly to the Dex Holders. "It was nice meeting all of you again." Morty echoed his sentiments, and then they were off, rising on the back of a gigantic Fearow.

"A Hypno," Red said thoughtfully.

Green massaged his temples. "I just want this day to be over," he said through gritted teeth. "What in Mew's name did I do to deserve this punishment?"

"Would you really like the answer to that question?" Gold dodged as Green attempted to kick him again.

"Hey, Prissy Boy." Silver snapped his fingers in front of the dazed Ruby's face. "I think the sight of Sapphire broke him," he commented as Ruby blinked slowly.

Ruby sighed and rested his chin in his hand. "I just don't understand why the sight of Sapphire being feminine doesn't make me _happy_." He scowled as Gold's face split into a grin. "Shut _up_, Gold."

"Careful, you might get wrinkles from all that frowning-"

"Both of you be quiet," Green ordered furiously.

"But he started it-" Ruby began before falling silent when a familiar looking Pikachu jumped up onto the table, cheeks fizzing dangerously.

Red made a slight _tsk _ing sound before gathering the electric rodent to his chest, a small smile tugging at the side of his mouth. "Ah, there's Crystal," he said as normally as possible, nodding in the other direction.

Gold's head whipped around so fast the others were surprised that his neck didn't crack. When Green caught sight of Crystal's outfit, the look on his face could only be described as- well, horrified was the only way to go about describing it. Silver made a sound that sounded suspiciously like "What the _frick-_" and Ruby choked on his own saliva, wishing that his fashion senses weren't completely obliterated by two girls in one day. Red just sat there, stroking Pikachu, looking for all the world like he didn't care about what was going on.

"Oh _Gold_!" Crystal trilled out the Johto boy's name in a voice that sounded suspiciously sugar-coated in honey. "I've been looking all over for you!"

Gold gulped loudly, his usual bravado failing him when he caught sight of his usually decently-dressed girlfriend. "Uh… sure?" he tried. "What did you need?"

"A longer skirt and a T-shirt instead of that piece of fabric?" Silver muttered, and for once Gold simply agreed with him.

Crystal skipped up to Gold and he noticed in horror that her hair was sprinkled- no, drenched- in golden, silver and pink sparkles. "What did you do to your hair?" Gold asked, his voice trembling with either suppressed laughter or acute terror at the horror of Hypno's Hypno (he made a conscious decision to write that down in his book of puns later). "You look like a clown decided to drop Christmas on your head."

"That didn't make sense," Red murmured absently to himself, and Green just nodded vaguely, his mind deliberately somewhere else so he didn't have to _look _at Crystal.

Crystal simply threw her head back and laughed a hearty "_ohohoho_". All the boys cringed as the sparkles caught the sunlight and blinded them all for a few seconds. "Why, Gold," Crystal explained, "It's only the newest fashion, don'tchu know? It's all the rage in Sinnoh now. You know," and here her voice dropped conspiratorially, "we should go together one of these days. Just you and me." She ran her fingers along Gold's back, and he wondered why he felt like fleeing the scene and running far, far, away.

"Uh, sure, Crys," he attempted to stall. "Maybe, uh, one day. In the meantime, uh, why don't you sit down for a few moments and talk to me while the others _go and find our other friends_?" He emphasized the last part through gritted teeth, glaring at all of them, and they got the message, edging away while making lame excuses to leave.

Crystal grinned, a huge Cheshire-cat grin. "Of course, Gold! I'll take a seat!" And before Gold could protest, she'd settled on his lap, arm comfortably slung around his neck as she chattered on and on and on and on about their upcoming Sinnoh trip…

It was funny, Gold thought, that he'd always wanted Crystal to be a little more outgoing, but this was just- plain- _ridiculous_.

...

"I'd like to say that I am not surprised… but I am." Sabrina stood on top of the hill, her face bathed in the setting sun. "Hypno did a very good job in hypnotizing them, I must say."

"Can you fix it?" Silver wanted to know.

Sabrina shrugged, a move that all five boys were beginning to find very aggravating. "Perhaps." She tossed her Pokeball, and Alakazam appeared in a flash of light, its long whiskers twitching in anticipation.

Morty clapped his hand on Green's back. "You can't deny that you've never wanted to see their other side," he commented.

"That side is _disturbing_," Ruby complained, and Morty winked.

"Ah, but you didn't know that until you saw it. The rock never understands the stone until an earthquake."

Everyone stared after Morty as he left to go stand with the Saffron Gym Leader. "What was _that _all about?" Gold finally asked.

Falkner strolled by. "Ignore him," he told them. "He likes to say all these random things, and then completely mean nothing by them."

From down below, Blue's outraged voice drifted up. "Crystal! You should be ashamed of yourself, dressing like that!"

"Oh, Blue, you're overreacting. You need a bit more fun. I mean, that lab coat is completely unflattering on you!"

_No it's not_, Green thought before he could control himself; he saw Red look up , glance over at him and raise an eyebrow, as though he had said it aloud.

Arceus, had he really said it aloud?

Sabrina lifted her hand, and a sudden pall fell over the group of girls as they collapsed against each other in a deep sleep. "Well, that's done," she said cheerfully- well, almost as cheerfully as the morbid Saffron Gym Leader could get. "When they wake up, they should all be back to normal."

"And if they're not?"

Sabrina had teleported away with the other two Gym Leaders before the question was fully formed on Gold's lips.

Ruby looked at the sleeping girls. "I hate waiting."

…

_Monday_

Green sat at his grandfather's lab table, sipping coffee as he read the morning's newspapers. Thank Mew, the tabloids hadn't gotten a whiff on their heroines' strange behavior; it was full of the same boring news on Pokemon products and far-off accounts of sightings of Mewtwo. Ah, those silly fools. Green put the paper down just as the door swung open and a visibly exhausted Crystal staggered in- thankfully dressed in her normal modest attire this time.

"Good morning, Crystal," Green greeted his fellow Dex Holder. "How are you?"

"Don't even _talk _to me," Crystal grumbled. "Gold told me what happened yesterday. Please tell me it's not true?"

Green bit back a smile and instead took another sip of his coffee. "I'm afraid it is."

Crystal groaned, covered her face, and fled the room.

"Taking it well, is she?" Red lounged in the doorway, his red eyes amusedly following Crystal's fleeing form as she ran for sanctuary. "Yellow's awake," he said by means of explanation for his sudden presence. "Confused, but awake."

"Good." Green placed his cup in the sink and retrieved his jacket, indicating his desire to leave the room. Red stood aside, and the two tall boys fell into step as they left the lab. "I assume," Green continued, "that that means the other two are awake and back to normal as well?"

Red shrugged, and Green wondered if his best friend wouldn't get along _splendidly _with Sabrina. "Eh," Red said in response.

They spent the day in Green's Gym, demolishing each other's Pokemon for training; around two in the afternoon Ruby called, sporting a new black eye. "She's awake, and she _didn't _like what I told her," he said bluntly, although the glimmer of happiness in his eye undermined his indignant tone.

It took a while, but two hours later a chastened Blue slipped through the double doors of the Gym. Green merely raised an eyebrow as he recalled his Golduck and Red recalled his Poliwrath, diplomatically disappearing into the back. "What do you want, Blue?" Green asked resignedly- he had come to terms with the fact that since Blue was back to normal, he'd have to deal with her obnoxious ways.

"Silver told me that I organized your entire filing cabinet."

"And my book collection, and the incomplete field report I left on the desk."

Blue beamed. "Didn't I do a good job?"

"A-_ma_-zing," Green drawled sarcastically.

"See, Green? This is the sort of trouble I get myself into when I go out. _Alone_."

"Guilt trips aren't going to work, Blue."

"It really is partly your fault, though."

"If you say so, Blue."

He was surprised when she attacked him with a hug, two arms wrapping tightly around his neck. "I'm glad to be back," she said into his chest as she embraced him.

He hesitated, but grudgingly hugged her back, his arms resting on the back of Blue's blue and white shirt. He'd never admit it, not out loud, not even to Red- but he was glad that she was back, too.

Arceus, he thought, he was getting _soft_.

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><p>And there we have it! A couple hours of sheer boredom. Reviews as always, loved and appreciated! :)<p> 


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